Intelligent NBA commentary from the two biggest basketball fans on the planet.

February 17, 2007

Despite the low score from the olympic style judging (it scored 42), Dwight Howard put together what I considered the best dunk of the night. Jameer Nelson flips the ball up to Howard who slaps the backboard waaay high up and throws it down. Nothing special, right? The camera focuses high on the backboard and there's a sticker with Howard's face on it. Nelson whips out a tape measure, they both marvel the height and Nelson holds up a sign with 12'6" on it. Good times.

Granted Gerald Green had more explosive dunks, but The Sticker Dunk had everything: athleticism, power and showmanship. The judges should have given him at least a 48! Did we really need to see Nate Robinson (and another year of 10 plus attempts) advance to the finals? Anyway, here's photos of The Sticker Dunk, you be the judge:

October 02, 2006

The Orlando Magic have cornered the market on creepy looking team photos.

With training camp around the corner, each NBA team is busy taking player photos and doing public service videos. Evidentally, the Magic hired their photographer out of Sears portrait studio. Here's a few of them:

March 23, 2006

Finally freed from the bench at Detroit, some NBA insiders are watching anxiously to see if Darko can turn his career around now that he's got a chance to play.

Evidently, all the pine time has killed his conditioning. According to ESPN, Darko's minutes are limited because he's out of shape:

"Darko Milicic is getting 20.9 minutes a night since he came to Orlando. And the reason he isn't playing more may be because, right now, he can't.

"He's not in great condition," said Magic coach Bob Hill. "He can't play sustained minutes out there at a time. He has to play them in bursts."

Is this just a result of the inactivity in Detroit? "I imagine," said Hill. "The guy hasn't played for two and a half years."

Call me crazy but, aren't you supposed to get into shape in training camp and at practice? So Darko even rode the pine at Pistons pactice sessions? What, did Flip wait until the Blue squad was blowing out the Red squad before Darko entered?

February 22, 2006

To the surprise of, well, no one, the Knicks made a deal before tomorrow's deadline by sending Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza to Orlando for Steve Francis. What is surprising though is that Isiah Thomas seems to have actually pulled off a deal that will help his team. Ariza had stopped getting any playing time from Larry Brown, and Hardaway has only played 4 games this season. It is unlikely Penny will even play for the Magic this season, his expiring contract was simply included in the deal to make the salaries match.

This of course creates a very crowded backcourt in New York. With two shoot first ball handlers in Francis and Marbury, shots will be at a premium. Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson are also going to be vying for minutes, which makes you wonder if one of the other Knick guards will be dealt before tomorrow's 3pm EST deadline.

February 18, 2006

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." - Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is credited with saying, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Well the great Darko Milicic and his "talent" has awaken the sleeping giant in Coach John Thompson... let me explain:

I decided to watch the Rookie Game Friday night just to get into the whole All-Star mood. The game is never worth anything. It's usually just a three point shot/bad alley-oop fest with NOBODY playing any defense. The whole purpose of the event is to give access to people who couldn't get tickets to All-Star Saturday or the All-Star game. Plus it's a chance to peek into the future of the game with some up-and-coming stars. Myself, I was watching just to catch any funny things of note.

Well former Georgetown Coach John Thompson, woke up in the second half to provide the greatest moment in his television commentary career.

During some down time, David Aldridge was trying to put a positive spin on the Darko trade to Orlando. He pointed out that Detroit didn't give up on Darko, but rather the trade was to clear salary space to enable Detroit to re-sign Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince next year. Though Milicic is set to make a shocking $5.2 mil. next season, I seriously doubt it would hinder negotiations with Big Ben and Tayshaun.

Anyway, Ben Wallace, according to Aldridge, said that Darko is, "the Serbian Gangster... the kid can play." (Detroit fans must be happy that he's not their GM)

Reggie Miller starts the Darko pile-on, "If Wallace thought Darko was a gangster, why'd they give up on him so quick?"

Aldridge tried to rally for Darko, "He just wasn't going to get playing time (in Detroit)."

This woke Thompson from his sleep...

"Did he get playing time in practice? Come-on, this is ridiculous!" (uncomfortable laughter from Dick Stockton as Thompson continues) "My goodness... how long has he been in this league? He's the best kept secret.... If he's a thug, he sure has been incarcerated!"

HMMM, let me think... I believe Thompson may know something about big men as he coached: Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Othella Harrington. Add the fact that Thompson was the last person to truly coach Allen Iverson, he may have some experience at talent evaluation... but then again I'm not part of the Darko hype machine.

I'm still amazed that a lot of people in the NBA defend Detroit picking Darko. Like a lot of Euro projects, I think he's a waste. (Quick, name a great European player... Nowizki? Okay, but one out of 379 players does not a trend make) Now Milicic and the constant hype machine will decay in the Magic Kingdom.

February 01, 2006

Tonight in Orlando the Clippers will face the Magic, but that story will have to take a "back seat" if you will to the main event: BFFs Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley will be reunited! These two close friends are just a little too close, don't you think?

When Mobley was traded from the Rockets last year, Francis was devastated. He was quoted as saying "I can't put it into words," "Playing with a guy, living with a guy, just knowing that every day when I wake up that's something I can count on, that I'm going to be in practice or in a game with Cuttino. Him not being here is going to be tough for me. I don't know what I'm going to wake up for."

How about waking up for your millions of dollars and the fact that you play basketball for a living?! If one of your friends moved across the country, would you actually be suicidal about it, unless the friendship had some *ahem* additional benefits? Me neither.

The latest story involving Mobley's place being robbed and Steve Francis having thousands of dollars worth of jewelry stolen in the heist is equally strange. One, how many men do you know are really into expensive jewelry collections, and two, who leaves a bunch of jewelry at another dude's house?! If these two aren't gay, then they're doing everything possible a gay couple could do except F-ing each other.

January 05, 2006

Kidding, but I wish I wasn't. Here in Los Angeles there was no escaping the fact that a college football game of apocalyptic proportions involving a local team was being played last night. In case you were distracted by this event as well, here are some things that went on in the nine NBA games last night:

- Toronto won their fourth straight game by dropping 121 points on Orlando. This brings TOR's season win total to 10, and reminded me that bad teams like to run up the score whenever possible on other bad teams.

- Lebron James is good. He went for a triple double in leading the Cavs to a comeback win at Milwaukee. CLE outscored the home team by 12 in the 4th quarter to get a nice win on the road.

- Dwyane Wade also had a triple double, but it didn't matter as the NOOC Hornets blew out the Heat. Chris Paul is having a great rookie season, and the Hornets remind me of some of the Clippers teams from the past couple of years that were not that great, but often stepped up and beat the upper echelon teams at home.

- Minnesota caught a tired and disinterested Dallas team on the second night of a back-to-back, and beat them easily. Marko...Jaric....Marko....Jaric played out of his mind, and MIN was quicker to every loose ball and REALLY wanted this game, while DAL played like they didn't give a crap. KG, the overrated bitch that he is, was guarding Dirk at and beyond the 3-point line. Maybe Dirk should have gone VC against Kobe on him.

December 16, 2005

Since the Knicks can't seem to beat anyone on the court, they seem to want to beat up each other. After their blowout loss at home to the Magic, rookie Nate Robinson and veteran Malik Rose got into a loud shouting match in the showers after the game. Rose claimed it was over a $2 football bet that he refused to pay, which led to Nate jumping on him in the shower.

First of all, there's no way their bet was only $2. As we've mentioned before, NBA players love to gamble on just about anything, so this bet was probably more like 2Gs, at least. Second, don't the Knicks have other things to worry about, like losing by 15 at home to the (now) 9-12 Orlando Magic? By the way, the Knicks also lost at Atlanta tonight by 11.

If this crap continues, Larry Brown will be easy money in the dead pool. As for Nate and Malik, jumping on each other in the shower isn't the most masculine of activities. I heard they made up by agreeing to go see Brokeback Mountain together.